(ANSA) - Rome, May 20 - Justice Minister Alfonso Bonafede on Wednesday survived two confidence tests in the Senate.
A centre-right no-confidence motion was rejected by 131 votes to 160 with one abstention.
One presented by the Bonino grou went down with 158 nays, 124 ayes and 19 abstentions.
It was rejected after the centrist Italia Viva (IV) party voted against it, a move that had been in doubt until shortly before the vote.
Bonafede's 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the centre-left
Democratic Party (PD) had warned their government partner IV, led by ex-premier Matteo Renzi, that the government would be plunged into crisis if the minister were to be ousted.
Bonafede has come under fire over the COVID-related releaseof hundreds of mafiosi from prison and over the alleged failure
to appoint anti-mafia prosecutor Nino Di Matteo head of the prison service in 2018.
In a speech to the Senate ahead of the vote, Bonafede saidit was "false" that he had "opened the doors for dangerous inmates".
He said most of the mafiosi had been granted house arrestunder previous regulations, dating back 50 years.
Bonafede said 256 inmates convicted of serious crimes and let out for COVID fears would return to face a judge because of the
government's latest decree on the issue, the second of two.
He denied reports that as many as 497 dangerous inmates had been released.
Bonafede also said there had been no pressure placed on the government over the prison service appointment and he had "cleared away the pseudo doubts" of his critics.
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